Eli Pepperjack

This article contains canon information corresponding to the Tales of Arcadia franchise. That means all information in this article is true and has appeared/been validated officially on-screen.

“Arcadia is a hotbed for supernatural activity. There's a whole other world that we don't know anything about. Creatures lurking in the shadows...monsters living among us. Whatever they are, someone or something in Arcadia is at the center of this.”

―Eli to Steve

Eli Pepperjack
Appears In
TV Shows	Trollhunters 3 Below Wizards
Character Information
Full name	Elijah Leslie Pepperjack
Age	15-16
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Dark Brown
Race	Human
Home	Arcadia Oaks
Affiliation	Good
Personality	Kind, nerdy, shy, adorable, anxious, intelligent, polite, friendly, insecure, cowardly, nervous, worrisome
Family	Unnamed mother Unnamed father
Friends/Allies	Steve Palchuk (best friend), Toby Domzalski, Jim Lake Jr., Claire Nuñez, Mary Wang, Shannon Longhannon, Darci Scott
Enemies	Gumm-Gumm Army
Weapon(s)	Mace Shurikens Umbrellas
Likes	80s music, fighting evil, the supernatural, being a Creepslayer, zip slippers, hanging out with Steve, acting
Dislikes	Being bullied, nobody believing him, being ignored, being tormented, getting shoved into lockers, disobeying his mother
Status	Alive
Behind the Scenes
Voiced by	Cole Sand
First appearance	Becoming: Part 1
Last appearance	The Eternal Knight: Part 2

Elijah "Eli" Leslie Pepperjack is one of the main stars of the Tales of Arcadia franchise.

History

Background

Not much is known about Eli's background, but it would seem that he has been bullied and suspicious about the other realms for quite for some time. 

One day, Eli spotted Bular and Kanjigar battling on the bridge and decided to go tell everyone about it, believing it to be some sort of elaborate conspiracy.

Part One

Discovering the Trolls

When Eli claims tells everyone what he saw last night, Steve shoves him into a locker, believing him to be making it up. When Jim comes to Eli's defense, Steve challenges him to a fight, which Mr. Strickler breaks up, but Steve is still willing to fight later.

That night, Eli sees Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!!, and Bular running right by his window, which proves that he did see the trolls outside of his house, so he sets out to stop them from taking over the world, apparently as part of some sort of alien invasion that he has been looking into recently.

One night, a mailman arrives at Eli's house, delivering a package of spy gear to him (possibly to use for helping him prove he was right about the trolls), but Eli wasn't present, so the driver left a sticky note promising to deliver again the following night. He then sees a smashed goblin outside of his house and takes a photo of it on his phone. When he shows it to the kids on a field trip the next day, Toby takes the phone, sees the photo and quickly deletes it, destroying Eli's evidence. He also becomes Jim's understudy for the school play. 

Later that night, Eli finally receives his package and gives it a shake, assuming it to be unassembled, unaware that the driver had dropped it several times. The driver then quickly asked if he could use Eli's restroom, leading both of them to miss the swarm of goblins devouring the delivery truck.

Spring Fling

Sometime after Jim, Claire, and their friends defeat Bular, the spring dance starts coming up and Jim, Eli, and Steve are nominated for prom king. They compete for a theme for the dance. Steve comes up with a luau theme, Eli comes up with an 80s theme, and Jim accidentally comes up with the idea of moles. Jim's theme is the winner. 

A couple of days later, Eli competes against the other nominees in a contest on who can hold their hand onto a truck the longest. A couple of hours later, when Señor Uhl leaves, Eli is put in charge of keeping the peace between Jim and Steve, who start fighting. Eli wins the competition since he never took his hand off of the truck.

Eli later participates in the book stacking challenge. Just as another bully was about to slap down his stack to allow Steve to win, Jim used the Kairosect to freeze time, during which he moved the bully to knock down Steve's stack, allowing Eli to win again.

During the Spring Fling dance, Eli gets disappointed when Steve miraculously wins the title of prom king (despite Eli being the true winner).

Part Two

Jim Lake Disease

When Jim goes into the Darklands to get Enrique back, Claire and Toby cover up Jim’s absence by saying that he has a terminal illness. Eli is the only person who is actually concerned for Jim and asks everyone for donations. When Jim comes back to Earth, Eli instantly runs up to Jim and hugs him, with tears of joy in his eyes. Toby then tells Eli to get off of Jim.

Forming the Creepslayerz

In class, Eli is paired with Steve to carry out the project of taking care of a baby made from a sack of flour to the discontent of both. That night, Steve captures a Goblin in his garage. He goes to Eli for help, but the poor guy assumes he's going to hurt him again. Steve assures Eli that this is not the case, so he shows the goblin to Eli. He reveals the investigations he has been doing about the "paranormal events" that take place in Arcadia. Deducing that there is someone who conceals the monsters, the Goblin reveals them through a talking toy that is Jim and tells them to kill him. Both decide to take the Goblin to the police. but due to a car accident, they end up letting him escape. There, Eli and Steve decide to work together to eliminate Jim themselves, forming the “Creepslayerz.”

After discovering what would happen in the museum by spying and listening half to Jim and his companions in his house, the two go there with the intention of preventing it. Eli meets the Gruesome while Steven discovers that Jim is not a monster and that he is in fact, a hero. Eli and Steve end up being the ones who destroy the Gruesome by sacrificing their baby of flour, without anyone noticing their actions. Upon returning home, both decide to keep the secret to help Jim if they need it, and become friends, although Steve decides to continue bothering Eli to "manage appearances."

Saturday Detention

Steve and Eli purposely get Saturday detention, when they discover that the Trollhunters have been sent to detention as well, which actually helps them investigate what’s been going on with them and then the supernatural realm.

When Toby throws something at Eli, Steve throws it back in defense but pushes Eli down afterward. When Señor Uhl goes to the bathroom, the kids start to have fun together and bond throughout the school.

Later, when the possessed Draal shows up to kill Jim, Steve secretly eavesdrops on the battle, not knowing that Jim has also found out about the eavesdropping.

Saving the Trolls

Eli and Steve later receive a call for help from Jim, having them bring a series of umbrellas to help the trolls fleeing Heartstone Trollmarket shield themselves from the sun after Gunnar took over. Later, come nightfall, after the Trollhunters successfully teleport the remaining trolls, the Creepslayerz, and the Trollhunters celebrate, before asking Jim for explanations. Eli and Steve officially become the newest members of the Trollhunters.

Part Three

When Jim accidentally gives the teacher’s a can of troll dust, they become feral and start to act aggressive and cruel towards the students.

Eli and Steve confront Jim about it and demand him to find a way to fix this mess. Jim calls Strickler (who gave him the ashes in the first place) for some advice. Strickler informs Jim that the only way to calm the teacher’s down is to look into their hearts and emotionally connect with them. First, Toby tricks the other students into evacuating the premises by telling them a food truck is outside. 

When Strickler has force-fed the powder, Jim decides to cure him while Toby takes Uhl, Steve takes Lawrence, and Eli takes Janeth.

Eli goes to the auditorium, where he finds Ms. Janeth doing some sort of solliquy. When she sees Eli, she begins trying to drop things on him. Eli tries to defend himself with a cardboard sword, but it doesn't work. When she recites another play quote, Eli decides to recite with her and tells her how great a teacher she is, causing the effects to wear off. 

At the end of the school year, Eli and Steve attend the Battle of the Bands, watching Aja and Krel performing on stage. When Claire arrives on stage, she tries to inform every one of the Eternal Night, but nobody takes it seriously except for Eli, Steve, Aja, and Krel. Just then, Morgana arises from the center of the town and the Gumm-Gumms start attacking the town, ready to start their reign of terror. 

Eli and Steve use their Creepslayer weapons and teamwork to help fight off the Gumm-Gumms. Just when one of them is about attacking them, Nomura jumps in front of the Gumm-Gumm and defends them. Steve and Eli are awestruck by Nomura's beauty. When Morgana and Angor are defeated, Eli and Steve introduce the Trolls to Darci, Mary, and the school faculty. 

Appearance

Eli is a very adorable 16-year-old boy, who has black, straight, messy hair that is parted to the left that is shorter on the sides. He wears a green v-neck shirt, light brown cargo shorts, a black belt with a silver buckle, white socks, big dark blue square glasses, and black trainers. Once, during the Romeo and Juliet play, Eli sported a beret in his role as the narrator.

Personality

Eli is an awkward guy who just wants to be loved for who he is. He is cute, lovable, kind-hearted, and seems to deeply care for his mother since he is remorseful whenever he talks back to her or disobeys her, even if he is simply annoyed at her. 

In "Part One", Jim is the only person who has ever been nice to him, which he appreciates, but not entirely because he knows that Jim is nice to anyone who is supposedly innocent and kind as part of his "nice guy" image. He also seems to have a knack for acting and theater, since he was the narrator for the school play.

Eli became aware of the existence of troll life after he saw Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!! and Bular run by his window, but no one believes him when he tries to tell them. He tried to get more proof of the Trolls' existence but usually ended up losing all his evidence or gets beat up by the jocks.

In "Part Two", Eli starts to get more focus than he did in the previous chapter. When Steve captures a goblin, Eli explains how he’s been documenting the supernatural conspiracy for years. Since he and Steve became best friends and started investigating the paranormal activity, he seems to have grown a bit of a spine.

Abilities

Creepslayer

After teaming up with Steve to fight all the supernatural evil lurking in Arcadia, Eli dubbed themselves “The Creepslayerz”, on account of them calling the monsters, “Creepers.”

Observance

Eli is pretty observant of what goes on in Arcadia and often does research on the paranormal worlds of the trolls, aliens, and wizards. He uses a bulletin board to put his clues together and come to the best conclusion possible.

Equipment

Mace

Eli uses mace to fend for himself against his foes, in the same vein that cops use pepper spray to blind criminals.

Shurikens

Eli keeps shurikens in his toy chest, so he can use them someday. He uses them to throw at the enemies and trap them up against the wall.

Umbrellas

Eli and Steve used the umbrellas from the upcoming school play to help protect the trolls from sunlight.

Relationships

Steve Palchuck

Initially, Steve always made Eli’s life at school a living hell, such as violently shoving him into a locker, making him do his homework, forcing Eli to put money in his bank account, or knocking down his books when he's carrying them. Eventually, when Steve captured a goblin, he turned to Eli for some help and Eli told him of the information he has gathered on the supernatural activity in Arcadia. The two decided to work together to fight the supernatural activity by becoming "The Creepslayerz", a ragtag group of paranormal heroes. After their first night of investigating, Steve and Eli become friends, but Steve decides to hide the fact that they're friends for the sake of Steve's reputation, and Eli complies. At the end of the series, after the world is saved from Gunmar and Morgana, Steve and Eli proudly reveal to the teachers and students that they are best pals.

Jim Lake Jr.

Since Jim is the only person we've seen actually (and probably ever) stand up for Eli when Steve shoved him into a locker, Eli has always considered Jim to be his hero. When Claire and Toby lied that Jim had a terminal illness to cover up his absence in the Darklands, Eli was completely scared and worried about Jim. He was overjoyed when Jim was alive, though Toby ruined everything. However, he begins to have second thoughts when he and Steve start investigating some of the strange events happening in Arcadia, in which Jim is connected. The duo initially believes that Jim is evil and planning to take over the town and try to stop him, but are soon proven that whatever Jim is involved in, he's not an enemy. Eventually, when Steve and Eli reveal that they knew about his life as a Trollhunter, Eli says that "[Jim] has a lot of explaining to do."  To which, Jim's reply is that he will, later on. It is unknown if he is aware of Jim's departure from Arcadia and his transformation.

Toby Domzalski

Eli and Toby don't have much interaction over the series, but they have a fairly decent relationship, though not as close as the latter's friendship with Jim, and later on, Claire. In a promotional video for the Tales of Arcadia trilogy, it is seen that of all people, Eli phones Toby to show him the pressing information of the monsters and supernatural creatures living in Arcadia (most likely due to Jim leaving town with Claire and the trolls).

Quotes

“I've been saving these for a rainy day.”

―Eli to Steve in Creepslayerz

Episode Appearances

Trollhunters Part 1
"Becoming: Part 1" Appears	"Becoming: Part 2" Appears
"Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?" Appears	"Gnome Your Enemy" Appears
"Waka Chaka!"	"Win Lose or Draal" Appears
"To Catch a Changeling" Appears	"Adventures in Trollsitting" Absent
"Bittersweet Sixteen" Absent	"Young Atlas" Appears
"Recipe for Disaster" Absent	"Claire and Present Danger" Absent
"The Battle of Two Bridges" Appears	"Return of the Trollhunter" Appears
"Mudslinging" Appears	"Roaming Fees May Apply" Absent
"Blinky's Day Out" Absent	"The Shattered King" Absent
"Airheads" Appears	"Where Is My Mind?" Appears
"Party Monster" Absent	"It's About Time" Appears
"Wingmen" Absent	"Angor Management" Absent
"A Night to Remember" Appears	"Something Rotten This Way Comes" Absent

Trollhunters Part 2
"Escape from the Darklands" Absent	"Skullcrusher" Appears
"Grand Theft Otto" Absent	"KanjigAAARRRGGHH!!!" Absent
"Homecoming" Absent	"Hiss Hiss, Bang Bang" Appears
"Hero with a Thousand Faces" Absent	"Just Add Water" Appears
"Creepslayerz" Appears	"The Reckless Club" Appears
"Unbecoming" Appears	"Mistrial and Error" Absent
"In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King" Appears

Trollhunters Part 3
"Night Patroll" Absent	"Arcadia's Most Wanted" Absent
"Bad Coffee" Appears	"So I'm Dating a Sorceress" Absent
"The Exorcism of Claire Nunez" Absent	"Parental Guidance" Absent
"The Oath" Absent	"For the Glory of Merlin" Absent
"In Good Hands" Absent	"A House Divided" Absent
"Jimhunters" Absent	"The Eternal Knight: Part 1" Appears
"The Eternal Knight: Part 2" Appears

Trivia

• Eli's appearance is reminiscent of Jim's from the original books and his personality is reminiscent of Jim’s father.
• His favorite teacher is Lenora Janeth.
• Eli is allergic to gluten, as he states in "Just Add Water".
• In an interview for part two, Guillermo Del Toro and Marc Guggenheim said that Eli and Steve were their favorite side characters to flesh out and develop.
• In "Where is my Mind?", Eli's worst nightmare is revealed to be no one believing him. 
• Eli and Steve will become major characters in 3 Below and Wizards.
• Since Eli and Steve are going to gain bigger roles in the franchise and are the ones investigating the supernatural problems, it would make them among the stars of the franchise, in a sense.

Gallery

Arcadia Oaks-pedia has a collection of images and media related to Eli Pepperjack which can be found at Eli Pepperjack/Gallery.